Naoshima

Shikoku, Japan · Remote island

Contemporary art here is either buried underground or slipped into village houses: Tadao Ando's Chichu museum is subterranean and holds Monet, Turrell and De Maria, with timed tickets booked in advance and no door sales once they run out. In Honmura, the Art House Project occupies traditional homes. Kusama's yellow pumpkin still stands on the pier, and between the first ferry and mid-morning the island is empty.

The essentials

Getting there

Ferry — Short ferry from Okayama or Uno

What it is genuinely strong in

🧘 Wellness & unplugging🛌 Pure relaxation

Frequently asked questions about Naoshima

What to do in Naoshima: 39 activities

• Chichu Art Museum 2.5 h must-see booking

  An underground museum designed by Tadao Ando, housing works by Monet, Turrell and De Maria. It requires an advance booking with a set date and time: since October 2024 tickets for all Benesse Art Site facilities are bought online and, if they sell out, there is no sale at the ticket desk.

• Honmura Art House Project 2 h must-see booking

  A cluster of traditional houses in Honmura village transformed into contemporary art installations, including Minamidera and Kinza.

• Yayoi Kusama's Yellow Pumpkin 0.5 h must-see only from March to December

  The island's most iconic sculpture, on the pier facing the sea. The original was destroyed by a typhoon in August 2021 and a reinforced version was installed in October 2022; it is usually removed for maintenance between January and the end of February.

• Go'o Shrine (Art House Project) 0.5 h

  An old Shinto shrine in Honmura village reimagined by Hiroshi Sugimoto, with a glass staircase descending to an underground chamber connected to the sea.

• Hiroshi Sugimoto Gallery: Time Corridors 1 h booking

  Sugimoto's gallery next to Benesse House Park, open daily with no weekly closing day and requiring a date-and-time reservation. Admission includes tea and a sweet in a room looking out on his glass 'Mondrian' tea house: it is the most contemplative stretch of time on the island and very few people take advantage of it.

• Minamidera, Turrell's 'Backside of the Moon' 0.5 h booking

  Although it is part of the Art House Project, it is not covered by the five-house pass: it is paid separately and a time slot must be booked. You enter in a group into a room in total darkness and it takes several minutes for your eyes to reveal the work.

• Staying at Benesse House 16 h booking

  Guests enter the museum outside public hours, until nine at night, and move freely through the area closed to vehicles. It is the only way to see the main works with nobody else around.

• Sunset among the outdoor works 1 h

  Once the day trippers take the last ferry, the Benesse coastal strip empties out almost completely. It is the best moment to see the yellow pumpkin and the outdoor sculptures with no queue.

• The empty island before the first ferry 2 h

  Between seven and ten in the morning there is nobody about: you can walk the Benesse coast or Honmura without meeting a soul. It is the main argument for not doing Naoshima as a day trip.

• Turrell's 'Open Sky' night programme 0.75 h booking

  A special 45-minute session at dusk inside Chichu's Open Sky: the square of sky cut into the ceiling changes colour while the artificial light is modulated. It is paid separately from admission and booked separately, on specific days.

• 'Ring of Fire' at the Matabe house 0.6 h booking

  A joint installation by Korean artist Haegue Yang and Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul in a house in Honmura. The daytime version opens only Friday to Sunday; the night version runs as three 35-minute sessions and does not admit children under six.

• ANDO MUSEUM 0.5 h booking

  A century-old wooden house in Honmura with a concrete interior inserted by Ando; inside are photographs, sketches and models of his works and of the island's history. Split opening hours and closed Mondays: it has to be planned around.

• Architecture by Sambuichi and SANAA 1 h

  Hiroshi Sambuichi's Naoshima Hall is Honmura's community centre and the rehearsal space for the women's bunraku troupe; the Miyanoura ferry terminal is by SANAA, with Kusama's red pumpkin in front of it. Both are free and visible at any hour.

• Autumn festival of the Hachiman shrine 5 h only the third weekend of October

  The island's big festival, on the third weekend of October: twenty-eight parishioners carry the mikoshi, eight men bear a drum with four children on top spinning it, and the two groups charge towards each other. The other two districts hold theirs in turn the same month.

• Benesse House Museum 2 h

  A museum-hotel combining contemporary art and architecture right on the sea.

• Cycling Among Outdoor Art 2 h

  A bike ride past art installations scattered across the island.

• I Love Yu Art Bathhouse 1.5 h

  A public bathhouse turned into an art installation by Shinro Ohtake. To be precise: it is a sento, not an onsen; the water is heated rather than rising from a spring. It opens from one in the afternoon to nine at night and closes on Mondays.

• Kinza, Rei Naito's 'Being Given' 0.25 h booking

  One person enters every fifteen minutes, in absolute silence, with a separate ticket from the pass and a compulsory reservation. It closes for parts of the year, so confirm before counting on it.

• Lee Ufan Museum 1.5 h

  A minimalist space set into the landscape, dedicated to the artist Lee Ufan.

• Museums with children: free entry under 15 4 h booking

  All Benesse Art Site facilities are free for children under fifteen, including Chichu, Lee Ufan and the new museum. Warning: the night work at the Matabe house does not admit children under six, and Kinza is entered one person at a time.

• Naoshima New Museum of Art 1.5 h booking

  A museum opened on 31 May 2025 dedicated to contemporary Asian art, housed in a partly underground building overlooking the Seto Inland Sea.

• Naoshima women's bunraku 1.5 h booking

  A troupe of nine women aged between fifty and eighty, unique in Japan for being entirely female. Bunraku reached the island in the 17th century, disappeared after a shipwreck in 1873, and four local women revived it in 1948; they give around a dozen performances a year, so check the calendar.

• Round the island by electric bike 3 h

  There are e-bike rentals in Miyanoura and Honmura, and the island has serious hills that justify the assistance. Note: the private stretch between Tsutsujiso and the Lee Ufan Museum is off limits to cars and bicycles, and can only be covered on foot or by shuttle.

• Sanuki udon in Miyanoura 0.75 h

  You are in Kagawa, the udon prefecture: a few minutes from the port it is kneaded by hand, it is cheap, and islanders fill the place.

• Seto Inland Sea sushi dinner 2 h booking

  A sushi restaurant opened in 2026 inside the Benesse House complex, with fish from the Seto Inland Sea. It is the island's new dining arrival and must be booked in advance.

• The 88 sacred sites of Naoshima 4 h

  In the Edo period the islanders created a miniature replica of the Shikoku 88-temple circuit, with stone buddhas scattered across the island, so they could make the pilgrimage without crossing the sea. Many still stand beside paths and walls, and they are the direct origin of the Valley Gallery work 'Slag Buddha 88'.

• The crossing of the Seto Inland Sea 1 h

  Twenty minutes from Uno and close to an hour from Takamatsu: the landscape of low islands and cargo ships is part of the experience, and you pass the island's amberjack fish farms.

• The ten Tadao Ando works route 6 h booking

  Chichu, Benesse House with its four buildings, Lee Ufan, the Ando Museum, Valley Gallery, the Minamidera house and the new 2025 museum form an itinerary with no equivalent anywhere: ten buildings by the same architect on an island of eight square kilometres.

• Valley Gallery 0.5 h booking

  Tadao Ando's ninth work on the island, from 2022: a trapezoidal concrete volume in a valley between three hills. Inside and out are the steel spheres of Kusama's 'Narcissus Garden' and Tsuyoshi Ozawa's 88 buddhas cast from industrial slag.

• Cafes in the back lanes of Honmura 1 h

  Cafes set up in traditional houses in the old quarter - seasonal fruit tart, house-roasted coffee, homemade curry - slotted naturally among the Art House Project houses.

• Drinks at the Miyanoura bar 2 h

  A tiny bar serving beers from a microbrewery on the island itself, open from six in the evening to midnight and closed Sundays. It is practically the only place to drink after ten.

• Fishing off the island breakwater 2 h

  You fish from the breakwater and the sea walls, with rod and bait rented on the spot; it is the island activity that almost no art visitor does.

• Gotanji beach 2 h

  The island's main beach, next to Benesse, with showers, cafes and a floating platform to jump from. There are no lifeguards: you swim at your own risk.

• Naoshima Pavilion by Sou Fujimoto 0.5 h

  A walk-in sculpture of white metal mesh beside Miyanoura Port, designed by architect Sou Fujimoto and free to enter.

• Sleeping in a yurt facing the sea 14 h booking

  The municipal lodging next to Gotanji beach rents Mongolian yurts as well as cabins and bungalows. It is cheap, very family-oriented and has a dining hall on the same grounds.

• SOLASHIO solar salt 0.5 h

  Seto sea salt dried entirely by the sun on the island itself, with no boiling. It is the only genuinely Naoshima-made craft product and is sold in the shops of Miyanoura and Honmura.

• Temples and shrines of the three districts 1 h

  Gokurakuji and the Hachiman shrine in Honmura, Sumiyoshi in Miyanoura and Sutoku Tenno in Tsumuura are the island's tutelary sites and sit a few metres from the art houses. Almost nobody visits them.

• The 100-yen town bus 0.5 h

  The town bus links Miyanoura, Honmura and Tsutsujiso for 100 yen, and from there a free Benesse shuttle runs up to Chichu. It is how residents get around and it avoids the parking problem.

• Visit to the island's copper smelter 2 h booking

  Naoshima has been an industrial island for a century, long before it was an art island. The smelter offers a free tour of almost two hours covering the wharf, electrolytic refining and the precious-metals recycling plant. Weekdays only, small groups, and in Japanese only.

What only happens on specific dates

• Yayoi Kusama's Yellow Pumpkin from March to December
• Autumn festival of the Hachiman shrine the third weekend of October

Ready-made routes through Naoshima

Chains well with

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